It is said that a servant man penetrated into the recesses of the mountains in the neighbourhood of Ogwen Lake and that there he discovered a cave within which there was a large quantity of brazen vessels of every shape and description. In the joy of his heart at his good fortune, he seized one of the vessels, with the intention of carrying it away with him, as an earnest that the rest likewise were his. But, alas, it was too heavy for any man to move. Therefore, with the intention of returning the following morning to the cave with a friend to assist him in carrying the vessels away, he closed its mouth with stones and thus he securely hid from view the entrance to the cave. When he had done this it flashed upon his mind that he had heard of people who had accidentally come across caves, just as he had, but that they, poor things, had afterwards lost all traces of them. In case a similar misfortune should happen to him, he determined to place a mark on the mouth of the cave, which would enable him to come upon it again and also he thought to himself that it would be necessary, for further security, to indicate by some marks the way from his house to the cave. He had however nothing at hand to enable him to carry out this latter design but his walking stick. This he began to chip with his knife and he placed the chips at certain distances all along the way homewards. In this way he cut up his staffand he was satisfied with what he had done, for he hoped to find the cave by means of the chips. Early the next morning he and a friend started for the mountain in the fond hope of securing the treasures, but when they arrived at the spot where the chip-marked pathway ought to begin, they failed to discover a single chip, because, as it was reportedThey had been gathered up by the Fairies. Thus this vision was in vain.| The author adds to the tale these words:But, reader, things are not always to be so. There is a tradition in the Nant, that a Gwyddel is to have these treasures and this is how it will come to pass. A Gwyddel Shepherd will come to live in the neighbourhood, and on one of his journeys to the mountain to shepherd his sheep, when fate shall see fit to bring it about, there will run before him into the cave a black sheep with a speckled head, and the Gwyddel shepherd will follow it into the cave to catch it, and on entering, to his great astonishment, he will discover the treasures and take possession of them. And in this way it will come to pass, in some future age, that the property of the Gwyddelod will return to them.

Find information on "Fairy Treasures seen by a Man near Ogwen Lake", and Fairies, in Capel Curig Wales. Celtic and Welsh mythology and folklore in the Walesdirectory.co.uk.